Del Mar makes booze ban on beaches permanent

DEL MAR 
Del Mar's beaches will be dry – so to speak – from now on during the summer.

The municipal code will ban possession and consumption of alcohol on beaches from March 1 through the day after Labor Day.

Without discussion, the Del Mar City Council voted unanimously Monday to make permanent a one-year alcohol ban that was approved in May 2008.

The city implemented its alcohol ban shortly after San Diego restricted alcohol at its beaches for a trial period of one year, a ban that San Diego voters made permanent in November.

San Diego's alcohol ban last year caused Del Mar's beaches to be inundated with drunken revelers. A city staff report says that during the three weeks after San Diego's ban took effect, 28 people were cited on Del Mar's beaches for underage drinking, urinating in public and possessing glass bottles.

Oceanside, Carlsbad and Encinitas ban alcohol year-round on city beaches.

The status of drinking at beaches is undecided in Solana Beach and Torrey Pines State Beach, which implemented one-year booze bans last year.